Door-operating mechanism.



H; T. ANDERSON.

noon OPERATING momma.

l APPLICATION FILED I'BUB. 23, 1912.

190649879, Patented June 17, 1913.

' 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

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IEIII Patnted June 17,1913.

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w C32/aw HARRY T. ANDERSON, or ENTIER, PENNSYLVANIA, AsSIGNon To STANDARD' STEEL'.

CAR 00.,.01? PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA,

A comoRATIoN or*v PENNSYLVANIA, y

DOOR-OPERATING MECHANISML tentava To all whom t may concern:

Beit known that I, HARRY T. ANDERSON, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Butler, in the county of Butler and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and usefulA Improvement in Door Operating Mechanism; and I do hereby declare the f ollowing to be afull, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to door-operating mechanism.

This invention relates more particularly to that class of door-operating mechanism in which a movable latch is carried by the door at the outer end with a winding chain connected to said latch, the latch will be drawn forward and supported by the winding shaft, when the door is closed, S0 as to relieve the weight on the chain and support the door directly on the shaft.

The object of my present invention is to improve this form of door operating mechaniSm as heretofore constructed in certain ways, and to these ends my invention comprises the novel features herein set forth and claimed.

In the drawings Figure v1 is a plan view of a portion of a bottom of a car showing my invention applied thereto; Fig. 2 is an enlarged section on t-he line 2-2 Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a sectional view Showing the door closed and the dotted lines showing the door in the open position; and Figs. 4 and 5 are enlarged details.

In the drawing the numeral 2 designates the bottom of a suitable car provided with openings closed by the doors 3. These doors may be arranged in pairs on each Side'of the center Sill of the car, said doors being hinged by suitable hinges 5 to the car-body. Each door is provided with one or more movable latch-members 6. members are adapted to move back and forth in the casing 7 This casing may be formed of wrought metal and is riveted or otherwise secured to the outer end of the door 3. The latch-member 6 may be formed of cast-metal and at its rear end it is supported within the casing I upon the roller 8 which rests on the bottom plate. The bolt 9 forms a stop for the roller and controls the outward movement of the latchmember 6. The outer end of the latch-member 6 is bifurcated to form the two arms 10 member in moving and out.

These lato/h2.

Specification of Letters Iatent. Patented June 17,. 1913) Application filed February 23, 1912-. Serial 110.679,31.-

and l1 with the space 12' between the same. These bifurcated ends project out beyond. the door.

The chains 13 are secured to the latchmembers 6, one of the links of said chain having the threaded shank 14 which passes. through the lug 15 on the latch-member and a nut 16 is screwed onto Saidthreaded shankv to Secure same to said latch-member.

A roller 17 is interposed between the per face of the latch-member and the door to provide for the easymovement of thel latch- The casing 7 is provided with the lower'- botton plate 18 and the opening 19 to permit of the backward movement of the latchmember without interference.

The chain 13 passes around the shaft `2O and said shaft is provided with the U-shaped kicker 21 which extends beyond the circumference of the Shaft so as to engage the outer end of the latch-member, or one of the arms A12 thereof. The other end of the chain 13 is secured to the shaft 20.

When my improved door-operating mechanism is in use and the door is closed, the parts will be in the position indicated in full lines Figs. 3 and 4 with the latch-member 6 resting on the shaft 20. When it is desired to open the door, the operator turns the shaft 20 which iS provided at one'end with a suitable ratchet and pawl .mechanism 22. A suitable wrench may be applied to the outer end of the shaft 20 for the purpose of turningY the same. As the shaft 20 is turned the kicker 21 will engage the .outer ends of the latch-member 6 and .will move saidY latch members rearwardly until said I latch members are moved back 0E the shaft 20 whereupon the weight of the contents of the car acting on the doo-rs will cause the doors to Swing downwardly into position indicated in Fig. 3 the contents of the car being discharged in this manner. The latchmembers themselves will assume the position indicated in dotted lines Fig. 3 and be held in this position by the chains 13. When it is desired to close the door lthe shaft 21 is turned and the chain wound up on said shaft and as the latch-member comes in Contact. with the shaft 20 the bevel ends 24 of said' latch-members will engage the lower side of the shaft, and uponthe further movement of the shaft the latch-members will be forced backward to clear the shaft, and upon the continued rotation of the shaft the chains will draw the latch-'members outward until they rest upon the shaft as indicated in Fig. 4. By having the latch-members mounted on the rollers in this manner the movement of the latch-members is accomplished with very little friction, so that the power to move the latch members forward to engage theshafts 20 is reduced to a minimum, and the latch-members rest direct-ly upon the shaft when the door is closed there- V by relieving the chain of all stress. The releasing of the latch-members from the shaft 20 is accomplished by a slight rotation of the shaft and the friction rollers relieve the resistance to the backward movement of the latch-members, so that very little power is required to rotate the shaft 20 suiciently to move the latch-members by the kickers 21.

While I have illustrated my invention in connection with a shaft running translversely of the car, it is apparent that the device is equally practicable to a shaft running longitudinally of the car where the doors swing. in a direction at right angles p to that illustrated.

What I claim is:

In door-operating mechanism, the combination with a car-body, of a downwardly swinging door, a casing secured to the lower side of said door, said casing having bot toms at different levels with an opening fr-med between same, a movable latch-` member in said casing, a roller interposed between said latch-,member and the upper bottom of said casing, a roller interposed between the upper face of said latch-member and the lower face of said door, a windingshaft upon which said latch-member rests, a

HARRY r. ANDERSON.

Witnesses:

A. J. GUMPPER, C. M. STEIN.

Copies of thin patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' Washington, D. C. 

